This invention is directed generally to the detection of electrical faults and more particularly to the detection of arcing faults in aircraft wiring and the like
Aircraft power systems have historically differed from ground based power systems in several ways. The electrical systems in residential, commercial and industrial applications usually include a panelboard for receiving electrical power from a utility source. The power is then routed through protection devices to designated branch circuits supplying one or more loads. These overcurrent devices are typically circuit interrupters such as circuit breakers and fuses which are designed to interrupt the electrical current if the limits of the conductors supplying the loads are surpassed.
Circuit breakers are a preferred type of circuit interrupter because a resetting mechanism allows their reuse Typically, circuit breakers interrupt an electric circuit due to a disconnect or trip condition such as a current overload or ground fault. The current overload condition results when a current exceeds the continuous rating of the breaker for a time interval determined by the trip current. A ground fault trip condition is created by an imbalance of currents flowing between a line conductor and a neutral conductor which could be caused by a leakage current or an arcing fault to ground.
Arcing faults are commonly defined as current through ionized gas between two ends of a broken conductor or at a faulty contact or connector, between two conductors supplying a load, or between a conductor and ground. However, arcing faults may not cause a conventional circuit breaker to trip. Arcing fault current levels may be reduced by branch or load impedance to a level below the trip curve settings of the circuit breaker. In addition, an arcing fault which does not contact a grounded conductor or person will not trip a ground fault protector.
There are many conditions that may cause an arcing fault. For example, corroded, worn or aged wiring, connectors, contacts or insulation, loose connections, damaged wiring, and electrical stress caused by repeated overloading, lightning strikes, etc. These faults may damage the conductor insulation and cause the conductor to reach an unacceptable temperature.
The need for arc detection in aircraft has become increasingly clear. For example, wire arcing may be a factor in some aircraft fires. Past responses to aircraft fires have been to increase the flame retardant properties of wiring and other interior components of aircraft. Standard overcurrent devices used in circuit breakers respond to the heating effect of current in a resistive wire to xe2x80x9cthermal tripxe2x80x9d the breaker, but these do not respond to the sputtering arc currents which cause intense arc heating and fire.
We propose a better approachxe2x80x94to stop the arc when it happens rather than wait for a fire to start or for a circuit breaker to thermal trip.
Until recently, such arc detection capability has not been available in circuit breakers or relays. Arc detection has been available for 60 Hz residential, commercial or industrial systems, but has not heretofore been resolved for aircraft wiring systems. In addition, most aircraft circuits do not have the neutral return conductor found in 60 Hz systems. This prevents the use of differential detection of ground faults on most aircraft branch circuits. A standard aircraft circuit breaker contains bimetals and/or magnetic solenoids which provide an inverse time response to current. Arcing fault detection is not provided by these devices. Aircraft arc detection is not possible using arc detectors designed for 60 Hz circuits for several reasons. For example, 60 Hz arc detectors partly respond to ground fault which is not possible on standard aircraft branch circuits. Also, the methods used at 60 Hz cannot be automatically extended to cover a power frequency range as high as 400 Hz, typically used in aircraft.
Advancements in electrical circuit protection introduced by the residential and commercial industries have been slow finding their way into aerospace applications. Ground Fault Circuit Interrupters (GFCI) for personnel protection have been available in the home since the early 1970""s. Under ideal conditions, GFCI can detect phase to ground arcs as low as six milliamps, but cannot detect series arcs or improve line to neutral fault trip times.
Arc Fault detection technologies are a new and exciting innovation in circuit protection in the U.S. We have found that Arc Fault Circuit Interrupters (AFCI) can be designed to detect a series or parallel arc, as well as line to neutral arcs by xe2x80x9clisteningxe2x80x9d for the unique signatures which arcs generate. We have found that AFCI can detect arc currents well below the trip curves of today""s Mil-Spec aircraft circuit breakers. This enhanced detection capability may provide improved protection from arcing conditions onboard aircraft.
An arc fault circuit interrupter is a device intended to provide protection from the effects of arc faults by recognizing characteristics unique to arcing and by functioning to de-energize the circuit when an arc fault is detected.
Aircraft circuit breakers have historically been the best available protection for aerospace wiring. Today""s design standards are based on technologies that are up to 40 years old. In aircraft/military type breakers, the protection is provided in two ways. Short circuit currents operate a magnetic trip latch, while overload currents operate either a bimetal trip latch or hydraulic damped magnetic plunger. The xe2x80x9cinstantaneous tripxe2x80x9d is the high current magnetic trip action found on some but not all aircraft breakers. The time to trip during an overload is determined by the time it takes to heat a bimetal to the temperature that delatches the breaker. The more current that heats the bimetal, the shorter the time it takes to trip the breaker. A hydraulic-magnetic style of breaker contains a magnetic slug sealed in fluid which moves to a trip position in response to the square of the current. These circuit interruption devices are selected by aircraft design engineers to protect the aircraft wiring from overheating or melting. During arcing faults these currents are often small, short in duration and well below the overcurrent-time protection curve designed into these breakers.
Arcing in a faulted AC circuit usually occurs sporadically in each half cycle of the voltage waveform. The complex arcing event causes sputtering arcs that vary the current from normal load patterns. The precurser to the arc may be a high resistance connection leading to a xe2x80x9cglowing contactxe2x80x9d and then a series arc, or a carbon track leading to line-to-line or parallel arcing. In a home circuit breaker equipped with Ground Fault Circuit Interrupter (GFCI), a carbon or moisture track can be detected early if the short is to ground. In many aircraft circuits, the neutral conductor is not available to complete the necessary ground fault detection circuit and GFCI protection is not possible. With the introduction of AFCI breakers, protection of arcing shorts from line-to-line, not involving ground, can also be detected and interrupted.
UL approved AFCI circuit breakers for residental use are available commercially. These are now in the NEC and will be required in home bedroom circuits 2002. Since the electrical loads in residential circuits can vary widely, they will be designed to allow for almost an infinite combination of electrical loads. Their AFCI programming is combined with GFCI as well as magnetic and thermal overload components. They are designed to form fit and function in place of standard residential circuit breakers.
There are two types of arcing faults in aircraft electrical circuits and wiring: Parallel and Series.
Parallel arcing occurs when there is an arc between two wires or wire-to-frame and the current is limited by the impedance of the voltage source, the wire, and the arc. When the fault is solidly connected and the arc voltage low, the normal aircraft breaker trips very quickly with little heating of the wire or damage at the arc point. Occasionally, however, the arc blows apart the faulted components creating a larger arc voltage and reducing the fault current below the trip curve and causing xe2x80x9cticking faults.xe2x80x9d The consequences of parallel arc damage, are usually much greater than series arcs. The average current may not be sufficient to trip a conventional breaker by heating the bimetal strip or the peak current may not be large enough to trigger the magnetic trip latch. This makes the Mil-Std breaker reasonably effective in protecting against parallel arcing when the peak current is a few hundred amps. Unfortunately, the fault current can be limited by a circuit with too much impedance to immediately trip the thermal-magnetic breaker. Parallel arcing is generally more hazardous than series arcing. The energy released in the arc is much higher with temperatures often in excess of 10,000 Deg. F. This causes pyrolyzation or charring of the insulation, creating conductive carbon paths and ejecting hot metal that is likely to encounter flammable materials.
Series arcing typically begins with corrosion in pin-socket connections or loose connections in series with the electrical loads. The voltage drop across a poor connection begins at a few hundred millivolts and slowly heats and oxidizes or pyrolizes the surrounding materials. The voltage drop increases to a few volts at which time it becomes a xe2x80x9cglowing connectionxe2x80x9d and begins to release smoke from the surrounding polymer insulation. Series arc current is usually limited to a moderate value by the impedance of the electrical load that is connected to the circuit. The amount of power from series arc is typically far is less than in a parallel arc fault. Since the peak current is typically never greater than the design load current, series arcing is much more difficult to detect than parallel arcing. Series arcing is usually such that the arc current remains well below the trip curve of the Mil-Spec aircraft breaker. Loose terminal lugs, misarranged or cross-threaded electrical plugs, broken conductor strands inside a wire are typical sources. These arcs cause load voltage drops and heating of the wire, plug pin, or terminal lug. This heating can lead to component failure and ignition source. Direct Current (DC) arcs are another serious event that can potentially be prevented with AFCI technology.
Care needs to be taken in the adaptation of AFCI into aerospace. Critical and essential electrical circuits need protection which will not nuisance trip. Most aircraft electrical loads are on branched circuits which provide a mixture of current waveforms to the breaker. A single breaker in the cockpit may feed several unrelated systems. Nuisance tripping is not acceptable as several systems may be powered by one breaker. Careful analysis should be used in design and implementation of AFCI technology in aerospace. Even with these reservations, AFCI has the potential to be one of the single largest improvements to aircraft safety in years.
Summarizing briefly, heat, arcs or electrical ignition are often caused by loose connections, broken or shorted wires in the power distribution system. In aircraft wiring, vibration, moisture temperature extremes, improper maintenance and repair all contribute to wiring failure. This leads to arcing and may ignite combustible components. Furthermore, carbon tracking caused by heat generated by the arc can deteriorate the wire insulation, exposing the conductors and resulting in intermittent short circuits between individual wires. These inter-wire shorts can cause damage to delicate avionics and cause system malfunctions in-flight. Elimination or reduction of these hazards to flight with arc fault technology should become an industry-wide priority.
The invention includes an apparatus and method by which arcing is detected in aircraft wiring.
Detection of the above-described sputtering currents caused by arcing is one object of the present invention. A detection signal generated in accordance with the invention can be used to trip a circuit breaker, to indicate arcing to the avionics package, to alert the pilot, or to issue a command to release a control relay.
Electrical arcing has been known to occur in wires of aging aircraft. Various methods of arc detecting circuit breakers and new types of wires have been proposed to reduce the arcing faults. This invention is directed to a new method of wiring and circuit protection which offers several advantages in simplicity and reduced risk in the electronic detection of arcing. The invention is especially useful in aircraft but can be applied in any DC or AC electrical power circuit where the consequences of arcing faults in wires or bus bars is to be prevented.
Ground fault detection has not been an option on single phase aircraft circuits due to the use of the aircraft frame to return neutral current. Neutral conductors on an aircraft would add significant weight to an aircraft and thus typical ground fault sensing is not possible. A ground fault sensor must detect the difference between current supplying and returning from a load. This invention can detect most ground faults to the frame by detecting the difference in fault currents on a bifurcated wire (described below) which occur in conjunction with a fault.
A typical aircraft electrical system includes a 3-phase power supply bus and a DC bus fed by generators or a ground-cart supply. The power buses feed main breakers that feed smaller 3-phase and single-phase branch breakers.
The branch breakers connect to wires that are bundled with other circuit wires and snaked through wire supports to the various electrical loads on the aircraft. Current passes through the load and then typically through a grounding strap to the frame of the aircraft. Neutral conductors are rarely employed to save weight.
Arcing faults have been found to occur at wire-to-terminal points (series faults), pinch points between wire and other objects or wires (parallel faults), and across the surface of connectors in the presence of moisture (parallel faults).
In the prior art of detecting arcing faults, complex algorithms have been necessary to distinguish normal load current transients from arcing faults. This has been due to the fact that the sensor typically detects both the fault current and the load current. In the present invention, a differential sensor does not detect load current, but only the current differences caused by faults. A similar analogy is with ground fault detection methods, which are well known to the industry. Ground path current normally consists of a small capacitive or leakage current, which is easily distinguished from ground faults in low voltage circuits. Unfortunately ground fault detection is not available in most aircraft circuits as weight considerations and minimizing wire weight is a primary design goal. It is an object of this invention to allow rapid arc detection while minimizing the increase in weight due to sensors and wiring.
Another detection system, known popularly as xe2x80x9cSmart wirexe2x80x9d by Tensolite Company and others, provides a conductive shield or a small gauge wire to be wrapped around the insulation of each current conductor. Any faults in the power wire will likely breach the insulation and produce currents in the sensor wire which are detected by a special circuit which trips the breaker. The disadvantage to this system is the added weight and complexity of the shield wire and the possibility that the shield may become disconnected at some point, unbeknownst to the sensor circuit. The proposed invention herein uses standard aircraft wire without requiring additional copper area for each circuit.
Applied in the DC or AC wiring systems of an aircraft, this invention would increase the safety and useful life of the aircraft. The flight crew will have confidence that a fault will not damage other components.
The invention can be applied to any new circuit where arcing faults are to be avoided. Retrofitting existing circuits would require replacement of each existing wire with a bifurcated wire system, as more fully described below.
Examples of applications include: in-building electrical wiring, power equipment bus bars, generator and motor windings, wiring in explosive atmospheres, mining power cables, vehicle or marine electrical wiring, utility transmission lines, underground or submarine cables, communication wires such as telephone and data communication, or anywhere that multiple wires are used in transmission of power.
It is a general object of the present invention to provide an arc fault detection system and method which reliably detects arc fault conditions which may be ignored by conventional circuit interrupters.
Another object of the invention is to provide an arc fault detection system which overcomes the above-noted problems, yet is relatively simple and yet highly reliable in operation.
Other and further objects and advantages of the invention will be apparent to those skilled in the art from the present specification taken with the accompanying drawings and appended claims.
In accordance with one aspect of the invention, there is provided a zone arc fault detection system for detecting arcing faults in a defined zone of an electrical circuit, such as an aircraft circuit, comprising a pair of substantially identical parallel insulated conductors for each zone in which arcing is to be detected, thereby defining a detection zone comprising the length of said parallel conductors between end points where the two conductors are coupled together, a current sensor operatively associated with each said pair of parallel conductors, said current sensor and said conductors being respectively configured and arranged such that the current sensor produces a signal representative of a difference in current between the two conductors.